1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to semiconductor manufacturing and, more specifically, in certain embodiments, to the simulation and error modeling of such manufacturing processes.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic devices are generally employed in numerous configurations to provide a variety of functions. Processing speeds, system flexibility, and size constraints are typically considered by design engineers tasked with developing electronic devices such as computer systems and system components. Such electronic devices generally include memory devices which may be used to store programs and data and which may be accessible to other system components such as processors or peripheral devices. Such memory devices may include volatile and non-volatile memory devices.
The manufacture (also referred to as “fabrication”) of semiconductor devices, such as the above-described memory devices, may involve a number of processes and steps. For example, such processes may include photolithography, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, dry and wet etching, planarization, etc. In designing a manufacturing process for a semiconductor device, it may be desirable to simulate some of these process and steps, such as by using a computer model. In particular, a photolithography process may be simulated to model the results of a mask used during the process. However, such simulations and the models used therein may not account for all of the mask errors or other errors introduced during the photolithography process.